Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) reported first-quarter fiscal 2016 results before markets opened Friday. The food processing company posted adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.15 on revenues of $9.15 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $0.77 on revenues of $10.82 billion. First-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $0.89 and $10.07 billion in revenues.

The strong quarterly results led the company to raise its fiscal year 2016 EPS guidance to a range of $3.85 to $3.95, well above the current consensus analysts’ estimate of $3.63. The company’s board also approved an increase of 50 million shares in the stock buyback program. Tyson repurchased $300 million in shares during the first quarter and has repurchased $200 million to date in its second fiscal quarter (about 3.9 million shares).

When adjusted for one-time items in the comparable quarter last year, Tyson’s operating income rose from $564 million in the first quarter of 2015 to $776 million, an increase of nearly 38%. Adjusted operating margin rose from 5.2% a year ago to 8.5%.

On the sales side, volume fell 6.8% year over year; however, most of that decrease was due to the divestiture of the company’s chicken operations in Brazil and Mexico, plus a hog business. Excluding those items, sales volume dropped 1.1%. Average prices dropped 9.2% year over year, with the biggest drop coming in pork prices (down 19.5%) and beef prices (down 14.4%).

In its outlook discussion, Tyson said it expects operating margin of more than 11% in its chicken segment while operating margin in beef at or above the low end of its normalized range of 1.5% to 3.0%. Operating margin in pork should be above the normalized range of 6.0% to 8.0%, and margin in the prepared food division is now forecast to be near the low end of the normalized range of 10% to 12%. Total annual sales are now forecast at approximately $37 billion, lower than the prior estimate of $41 billion due to lower prices for feed.

Tyson made news on Thursday when The Wall Street Journal reported that the company’s chairman, John Tyson, ranks at the top of the list of Fortune 100 executives in compensation for personal air travel. Tyson’s use of the company fleet totaled $859,129 in 2014. The Tyson family controls about 71% of the voting stock in the company through its ownership of the class B shares, which control 10 votes per share.

Shares traded up about 4.1% in Friday’s premarket session to $54.10, in a 52-week range of $37.10 to $54.59. The stock closed at $51.95 on Thursday. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of $55.27 before the earnings report.

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